Miley Cyrus' prostitution pop sends a message to perverts

Mark Furler is APN Australian Regional Media’s group digital editor. He’s an award-winning journalist who has lived and worked on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast for more than 25 years. He’s passionate about fighting for a better go for locals. His awards include APN Editor of the Year, and involvement in three PANPA Newspaper of the Year wins for the Sunshine Coast Daily.

DISNEY star Miley Cyrus' self-degrading dance at the MTV Video Music Awards demonstrates the prostitution of pop and women's rights that has become the hallmark of the music business.

We wonder why our teenage girls are posting sexualised selfies on Facebook or sexting male friends when we encourage an industry that promotes a race to the bottom to get to the top.

With her tongue out like a dog looking for water and gyrating among teddy bears, Miley Cyrus was apparently trying to tell the world she is all grown up now.

What was particularly disturbing was her performance with a giant foam finger, at one point bending down with Robin Thicke in the appropriately titled Blurred Lines duet. He is a 36-year-old married man, she is 20.

She sent a clear message to her Hannah Montana fans that if you want to get noticed in this world you need to show off your private bits - and no worries if it is with a much older bloke.

"Miley Cyrus has been on a fast path downward, and our heart breaks to see a young woman appear at the VMAs in such a degrading performance,'' Penny Young Nance wrote in a blog for Fox News.

"The reaction comes not because of her age or upbringing but because she was absolutely classless and self-degrading.

"Even when she decides to 'grow up,' young women will follow in her footsteps.

"If we continue to tell our young women that they are nothing more than walking private parts, we can be assured they will leave "Hannah Montana" behind in pursuit of the Lindsay Lohan lifestyle we saw."

Unfortunately, Miley is only the latest of the pop stars being told by the music industry that if you want to get noticed you have to do something shocking.

As parents it is time to say enough is enough. The lines have gone way past being blurred.

Our young women should be celebrated for more than just their looks or sexuality.

We need to foster a culture which recognises that sex 'when we want to' without the context of a loving, committed relationship, leads only to heartache.

And unfortunately, it's our daughters who are going to be the victims in a culture that encourages young men to see them as conquests rather than companions.